The federal Heritage Committee is recommending that the CBC’s funding be increased from $33 per person each year to $40 — and that the funding increases each year as per the cost of living. It further recommended CBC-TV be less dependent on advertising revenues.

(The CBC has not had a permanent funding increase in more than 30 years, not even to account for inflation.)

In its long awaited mandate review report, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage says the CBC’s mandate should cover seven years. It will begin public consultations on the recommendations soon.

It also recommended that the CBC and federal government “work toward decreasing CBC Radio-Canada’s relative dependency on advertising revenues for television programming.”

The committee has also given its support to a plan to increase the number of regional radio stations throughout the country, and wants the Broadcasting Act kept up with the times, including digital media and emerging technologies as a way to reach out to Canadians. It further wants resources put in place to provide closed-captioning for 100% of its television programming.

Canadian Media Guild Response

The Canadian Media Guild, which represents the majority of CBC employees, says it “strongly supports” recommendations and urges parliament to move quickly to implement the committee’s recommendations, particularly those that call for enhanced
funding.

“This feels like the first real moment of optimism for the CBC in recent memory,” says Lise Lareau, national president of the Canadian Media Guild. “An all-party committee has said yes to the CBC, yes to expanded radio coverage, yes to more CBC programming, including on the internet, and yes to more money to properly fund these important initiatives. Let’s get on with it.”

The CMG took credit for some of the recommendations, saying the report “echoes many of the proposals the CMG made when it appeared before the committee last spring, including an increase of per capita funding from the government.”

Conservative MPs Reject Recommendations

The Conservative Party wrote its own opinion rejecting, among other things, a proposal to keep the CBC’s television prime-time schedule all-Canadian. It said it considered recommendations like it (like the requirement of submitting a detailed HDTV implementation plan), amounted to micro-managing. “If CBC/Radio-Canada was [sic] bound to follow this particular recommendation they would not be permitted to show classic Christmas movies during prime-time on Christmas Eve, unless it happened to fall on a weekend.”

The party also rejected many recommendations seeking additional funding for specific projects, like HDTV implementation, saying that “stable-long term funding” was more appropriate than one-time grants for specific things. However, it also rejected the long-term funding proposal recommended in the document, saying it wanted to see a proposed budget from the CBC first. “Our members are disappointed that the report doesn’t recommend that CBC/Radio-Canada be invited to provide a full costing of the other recommendations of the committee report. We believe that responsible leadership involves costing out these recommendations before assigning fixed amounts to fund them.”

New Democrats Seek “Skill-Based” Approach to Hiring Presidents and Selecting Board Members

NDP members, in a supplementary report, said Board members and the CBC president should be hired based on skill and competence-related criteria, and that Board members should be non-partisan and better reflect “the regions of Canada, majority and minority language communities, First Nations, men and women, and ethnic and other minority groups.”

Currently, while the gender split is even among board members, all come from major cities. All but three of the 12 are from the Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa regions.

Highlights from the report are still ahead
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Highlighted Recommendations from the Report:

• Prime-time hours, from 7:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. [sic], Monday to Friday, on the CBC/Radio-Canada’s television networks, should be reserved for Canadian productions.
• The Committee recommends an increase in the variety, drama, news, public affairs and documentary programming produced by the regional CBC/Radio-Canada stations and independent producers.
• CBC/Radio-Canada should devote a greater share of its programming to the arts (music, books, film, dance and theatre performances) and that these programmes reflect the cultural diversity of the regions.
• CBC/Radio-Canada should develop a digital media strategy to be submitted to the Department of Canadian Heritage. The plan should include cost estimates for the
  development and expansion of the Corporation’s new media endeavours relative to the goals of its mandate.
• The Department of Canadian Heritage should prioritize its response to the CBC/Radio-Canada plan and provide one time funding for the capital costs associated with the transition to HD/DTV and recurrent funding to cover the increased operational costs of transmission and distribution of HD signals.
• CBC/Radio-Canada should play an increased role in the development, promotion and distribution of Canadian feature films.
• CBC/Radio-Canada should give the regions greater prominence in all its services.
• The CBC should take inspiration from the BBC’s accountability model, rooted in results-based management and would provide a comprehensive report on its programming and financial information for each of its individual services.
• The Ombudsman should be someone other than current CBC/Radio-Canada employees, or persons who have not been employed by the Corporation within the five years prior to the proposed date of employment.

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